Did you know that a fully functional bomb squad from the military is much less effective than a rat? An African rat alone was able to detect so many bombs in such less time, that not only it has surprised the experts, it has also given us new ideas where we can save so many lives so easily.
If things go as planned, we will soon have rats working as bomb detectors and that will literally save millions of lives all over the world.
This is the story of the rat
Drumroll please! ? Say hello to Magawa ? the first rat to be awarded the #PDSAGoldMedal & one of APOPO's @HeroRATs trained to detect landmines ? He's discovered 39 landmines making him their most successful HeroRAT???? Watch his full story here ?: https://t.co/so5CNCWlUw pic.twitter.com/YrVy2NWotW
— PDSA (@PDSA_HQ) September 25, 2020
This pouched rat named Magawa from Africa detected 39 landmines and 28 unexploded bombs in Cambodia. For his remarkable service and performance, he was given a Gold Medal by a UK-based veterinary charity called PDSA.
This rat had cleared an area of 141,000 square meters in his career. Despite being a large rat that weighs around 1.2 kg, the rat is still light enough and skillful enough that he does not set off the bombs even if he moves over them.
He is 200 times faster than a human bomb squad
He is so fast that he can clear an entire tennis court in less than half an hour. To put things in perspective, a bomb squad will take four days to clear that much area. Even then the bomb squad will be putting their lives at risk while the rat’s life is never at risk.
This is the first time in the PDSA’s 77-year-long history that a rodent has won such an award.
Why are there bombs in Cambodia?
Cambodia was fraught with decades of war and there are still many mines and bombs which are not cleared. Almost 20,000 people have killed in mine-related explosions in the last 40 years, and the country also has the world’s highest injury-induced disability rate.
These rats are being trained and used to detect mines in several countries such as Angola, Mozambique, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam.
Featured Image Courtesy: Rotpoisse